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SAN DIEGO, DAY 1: Comic-Con International 2002: Day 1 News Round-Up

While this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego has had an unusually high percentage of non-comics content this year, plenty of new comics news was announced on Thursday, at the opening of the show.

As readers of CBR’s Lying in the Gutters expected, DC/WildStorm announced that prodigal son Tommy Yune would be returning to shelves at the end of the year, if not the company itself, with a new Robotech miniseries, taking place during the Macross saga. The series, co-plotted by Yune, leads into the 2004 Robotech cartoon series, which Yune left WildStorm to work on.

“X-Statix” writer Pete Milligan is in talks with DC/Vertigo about writing a “Human Target” ongoing series that picks up where last year’s miniseries left off. Meanwhile, fans of his work on Marvel’s “X-Statix” (formerly “X-Force”) can look forward to a Doop/Wolverine crossover special in 2003.

X-Men editor Mike Marts said Wolverine is sticking to his new mask-less look for the foreseeable future.

“He won’t be going back to his mask any time soon,” Marts told an enthusiastic crowd at Thursday’s X-Men panel.

Do look for Lockheed the Dragon to return — or a story at least explaining where he is now — in the pages of “X-Men Unlimited.” The story is by Steven Grant and Paul Smith.

Look for more manga from Marvel in 2003. The company has signed on four more manga creators and will be using them on various projects throughout the year, gauging fan reaction to their approach to American-style comics.

X-fans wondering what’s going on with the return of the Phoenix force in the pages of “New X-Men” will have to wait a little longer. Marts said “something huge happens” in issue #140, although the story won’t reach a conclusion until issue #150.

Chris Claremont and “Soldier X” artist Igor Kordey are working on a 144 page Storm hardcover to be released around March.

“She and Yukio go out on the town, and things go downhill from there,” Claremont told the X-panel. Old characters return in the story, and Claremont said Storm “comes to terms” with her life.

Once and future X-Man Northstar returns to the fold in “Uncanny X-Men,” and receives a new costume in issue #417. And the creators in attendance at the X-panel assured a concerned fan in attendance that Northstar will not be renouncing his homosexuality now that he’s a part of the world’s most popular superhero team.

Mike Carey is one busy guy and after his Q&A, session today, readers learned that he’ll be a lot busier. He’ll be doing a “Batman Black & White” backup with Steve Marriotte that involves Scarecrow and his fear toxins. After some thinking by Carey, “Lucifer” will end around issue 60 or 70. The focus will be more on the Lucifer/Michael/God angle as it all ends. His “Hellblazer” will be most like Ellis’ run- it’ll include a crime underworld but with more magic. Expect a bigger supporting cast that won’t disappear too quickly. Carey hopes to be on the series for a few years. Karen Berger promises we’ll see a side of Mike Carey that “you’ve never seen before.”